For thence,a paradox Which comforts while it mocks,Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me:A brute I might have been, but would not sink i the scale. Robert BrowningRabbi-Ben-Ezra. St. 7.

Then there is that glorious Epicurean paradox, uttered by my friend, the Historian, in one of his flashing moments: Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries. HolmesThe Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. VI.